Steven Spielberg Talks Games, Selling Dreamworks To EA

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Okay, so you're a guy who makes movies, has seven children, and access to about six gajillion dollars. The kids want to play a video game...so why not make one?

In speaking to Reuters, Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg was frustrated that he couldn't find a video game designed for all seven of his kids. So he inked a deal with EA to produce Boom Blox, which released for the Nintendo Wii last May. However, while Spielberg says he's "learning a lot" by making games, he realizes he may have made a mistake in selling Dreamworks Interactive to EA several years back:

"The smartest and dumbest thing I ever did was to sell my company to EA. 'Medal of Honor' was almost done and we made the decision to sell Dreamworks Interactive to Electronic Arts and had we not sold, we would have been able to stay in business just based on the success of 'Medal of Honor.' But it was very smart also for us to sell to a company that was better equipped and better managed to be able to take 'Medal of Honor' into the international market and really make a commercial success out of it. "

It may be little more than a flagging commercial success right about now, but he certainly has a point. What might have happened if Spielberg hadn't sold off Dreamworks? Where might the MoH franchise be at this moment in time? And does Spielberg ever opt to make a big-budget title for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360? Well, his kids have to grow up some time, right? Therefore, he's going to have to make something that appeals to them; hence, a big ol' blockbuster that takes the gaming world by storm. He's used to the word "blockbuster," anyway.

5/15/2009 Ben Dutka

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